Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Mon 19th Nov 2001 19:44 UTC
Today, OSNews features an interview with Zac Woodall, software design Engineer at Office Data and Developer Services at Microsoft Corporation. Zac, who is also a frequent OSNews reader, talks about the new Office, .NET, WindowsXP, NTFS and how it compares to BFS filesystem, the GPL & open source movement and much more.
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> So they can't see the power of Linux and other free unixs
You clearly didn't read the article. I was a Unix system administrator in college. Also Linux is not Unix, as your statement implies, and the plural of Unix is Unices.
> Hell, they aren't that good anyway, when you can get free
> equivalents on BeBits...
I know what is on BeBits, and there is nothing that will allow me to read my corporate HR knowledgebase information. I cannot integrate with Siebel; I can't read OLAP cubes; I can't run business integration services via XML/SOAP; and I can't read my email from my Exchange or Notes server, in their native mode. Don't get me wrong, I like Be, I like it a lot; but it simply does not have the applications support that my fiancee needs to perform HR management tasks at ATT Wireless without administrative access over her machine!
> I'm a power user
Me too, one of my favorite features of XP is that I don't have to use the mouse... ever (with the exception of clicking links in a web page, because I'm too lazy to tab through them all). Can you do that in your os?
> When could you write your own apps without getting the blue screen
> of death with a funky pointer, or, hell, write your own apps without
> bumming a copy of MSVC++ (or paying through the nose)...
I don't think you've really used Win2K. I've never seen Win2K bluescreen for any reason short of a driver failure (and Be has been known to just hang on these w/o providing a kernel dump). As for developing Windows apps, http://www.msdn.microsoft.com">MSDN Microsoft" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/">Mic... SDKs for free.
> There are other OSes too. If MS.Net is not going to be cross-platform,
> many users will be restricted and other services will step-in.
.NET is not platform dependent.
> It seems to be leader in electronic devices area (VCR etc. stuff),
> very popular currently in Japan, backed by investors as Sony
Ultimate TV, Sony's current DSR is a joint venture with Microsoft.
> Then we should not forget JAVA of course, but Sun is not doing enough
> to make .ONE a success imo ...
A third party has Java running in .NET, and it runs a factor of 10 times faster than it's native environment.]
> My other question...how does he know how well WINE works
> (and how it handles the situations he lists), unless of course he
> actually looked at WINE and it's codebase....
I don't. Any situation that I mentioned would be based on what I know was a difficult situation to deal with from our end.
> the MS guy should talk to Microsoft's OSS Working group
I will do that, thanks for the pointer. What I spoke about in my interview was general policy.
> What is needed is the free & open access to the code and then let
> the public decide who has the better programmers and code.
The public? Who, your grandmother? Right. I think most people really don't care whether the source for the code is available. I also don't think the general public cares who has better programmers. What the general public does care about is getting their work done, and until GPL solutions are capable of plugging in to all the largest and most business critical (not the hacker business, but the banking business, the car building business, the soft drink business, ...) they will not undermine Microsoft's dominance in those areas. Anyway, why are you so stuck on the GPL? What's wrong with the http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html">MIT ? If you TRULY believe in open and free software development, it is a much better way to go.
> It is also true that Microsoft has hired programmers whos only
> practical experience is in Linux kernel hacking. I wonder why?
Probably because they were good at writing C code. MS does not discriminate against interview candidates based on their background.
> I think that there must be some sort of brainwashing going on.
> Perhaps they put some sort of chemical agent in all of those free
> drinks...
HA! You make me smile, man. Well, if there are chemicals in the drinks, I guess I'm pretty much sunk. [Jamie, is that you??]
> I miss BeOS's [Alt]+[~] command for switching between two quickly, and
> it's a bit quirky, but a less functional multiple desktop bar is better
> than none at all.
If you have WindowsXP, you can download the PowerToys from Microsoft's web site for free. They come with virtual desktop funcitonality, and the ability to bind a key combination for each desktop.
> I really do like Unix. My work machine is FreeBSD-based so I have a
> great deal of experience with it
I like you, you seem like a good person. Did anyone else notice that those comments contributed by the very Linux minded people seemed on the whole to take much more offense at my interview than those by the Be/Mac/BSD folks?
Overall, thank you very much for your comments. I genuinely appreciate constructive, well thought out feedback from sources outside the company.
As for those few sorry comments which had little or no actual content other than to bash Microsoft just for being Microsoft, comments dripping with sarcasm without technical merit or grounded assumptions, to the authors of those comments I say: grow up. You know who you are. Stop trying to look cool in front of your friends; and do us all a favor by stopping to think through your next area of commentary before wasting our screen space with your mindless babble.